THURSDAY: Played in all three legs of the Jedi Challenge beginning with the 100 point constructed using only pieces from Rebel Storm thru Force Unleashed. Played a fun simple squad that was powerful back then, and still powerful today as it turns out. Darth Bane and 6 Ugnaughts for 100 points on the dot. My map was the “Subway Cars” and was perfect for moving under cover and with Ughnaughts to blow the doors and provide cover for Bane. First game was a tough one against Alex and his Nom and Abyssan Black Sun Thugs, and filler. Tough as he could shoot my Uggies fairly easily and then he could started thinning them out. He made 2 mistakes, blew too many doors on cars leading to Nom and I made a long charge of 16 squares to enter the far left car Nom was in and he had no way to block his entry. Up to then he looked to have a chance and even then a few minutes later looked to have a chance to win. I hurt Nom but had not based him and he wins init and runs him down towards the middle left section. I run up and base him (Nom) who was hurt but not dead, then in a rules question I did not know, found that even if I killed him if I won init he still could detonate any Stealth pieces touching him although he was dead. This looked to spell trouble for Bane as it would hurt him a great deal. Alex ran anyone he could to reach Nom and Bane and formed a “7” shape around Bane. Then it hit me how to win, I won init and gave everyone AOO’s (they all did not get Cunning) most all missed and I went to top left corner of the “7” and killed a Gran Raider which set off a chain that killed every one of his pieces including Nom. I then chased down his remaining pieces and fell just shy of 100 points for a 2 point win. Game #2 played Bronson and his towed Boba BH also again on my Subway Car map. Tough game that saw Bronson towing Boba around and shooting hoping for a 20. I hurt Boba badly on basing him and doing at least 80 dmg. He tows and runs him a long way to far bottom center of map thru blown subway car doors. Again, I manage a huge run with Bane of 16 squares and base Boba. I win init and kill him with Rage. Game #3, I lose by quite a large margin to Jason and his Rebel Land speeder squad. He crit a few times on Bane and by activating me so badly could keep away and fire away with aid from Leia. Game #4 I do not remember actually but I won to go to 3-1 with 8 points and get 2nd place. Should have stopped there. 150 JC was all sets after Unleashed thru the end of WOTC. Played a Rebel squad with Crix, Han Scoundrel, Bothan Noble, 3 x ERC, Dodonna, filler. Map was Throne Room. Remember losing a close game to Jake in game #1, won a close game with Tom in game #2 (by 1 point), lost badly to Ricky I think in game #3 and lost again I think in game #4. 1-3 with 2 points, quite a let down from 100 games. Actually, remembered too late why I don’t like 150 about 2 games into this format. 200 point final leg of Jedi Challenge. Played Atton ‘Jaq’ Rand, Bastila, Carth, Klatoonian Cpt., Jedi Diplomat, O/R Senator, O/R piece with door shatter, and one more I have forgotten. Unremarkable as my last games were also. I won a 3 pointer against Les, lost to Jake and his Sith, and lost another I forgot due to brain fade and the late hour. I dropped at 1-2 to head home for an extra hour of sleep. 5-6 record…abysmal.

FRIDAY: Championship day. Instead of playing my fun and competitive O/R squad of Atton ‘Jaq’ Rand, Bastila, Carth, Klatoonian Cpt., Jedi Diplomat, O/R Senator, O/R piece with door shatter and filler, I mixed it totally up and played old school Lord Vader, 50 point Jabba, Mas, 32 point Thrawn, 27 point Lobot, Gha Nacht, and a little filler. 50 points of reinforcements gave me a chance to really tailor the squad. I almost always used Jabba’s 30 points for 10 Rodian Brutes or 8 and 2 Uggies. For Lobot, in 4 games, used his for Evazan and 2 mouse droids. Map was appropriately Jabba’s Palace. Lost to Mando’s in a cat and mouse to Mel. Won, won, lost, and then to try to finish at 3-2 played Ben. And in a truly hilarious game that neither of us will forget but I would have remembered much more fondly if I’d won, l lost a 10 minute game to him. We were on his Rancor Pit map; I set up in rooms at bottom left. I run a Rodian towards center and position. He comes from top right corner positions towards the right center. I swap Vader in and get gambit. Ben defers after init and then after a Rodian move by me, runs Revan to base Lord Vader and swaps in Lord Krayt! He pounds Vader needing only like 4’s or 5’s but on a reroll he misses his last swing to kill Vader. I take him all the way down to 10 or 20 HP after assaulting and Raging myself and Thrawn swap Vader next to Evazan safe in an open room with my squad. I perform Homicidal Surgery on Vader and plan to again the next round and send him out to hunt down Krayt. Vader misses the surgery 6 roll with like a 2. I reroll get like a 4, reroll with MOTF 2 and get like a 2 killing Vader. Unreal!!!! Ben and I crack up and talk about how unlikely it was to miss 3 straight needing only 6’s or less. I shake his hand and we have 50 minutes to jack around and watch games. 4:00 PM: Time for Randy’s inaugural Minis Madness tournament with a great first place prize of a complete set of Rebel Storm! Next year he will have a complete set of Clone Strike for 1st place! A great event with 13 participants with some experienced players and some new young and enthusiastic players. Then event is fun because you need nothing except yourself as all dice, maps, minis and counters are included. When you sit at the table against your opponent, the map is ready and there are 2 pencil boxes each filled with dice, counters and a 50 point or less squad comprised of no unique pieces. You both roll and the high roll in game #1 gets to pick his/her squad (every round thereafter, the lowest point total picks first.) You play like 20 or 25 minute lightning fast games (excellent) and can get gambit with any piece not merely 5 point or higher ones. At time, you have either got your victory total and won or not and lost. Winning and losing in early play does not really matter so much as scoring points is the deciding factor of which 8 players advance to the finals. In the finals, the top 8 players draft from the 8 undefeated teams (culled from the 64 which started the competition) with the player with the most points scored choosing first, 2nd highest picks second and so forth. In the finals you lose and are eliminated. I made the top 8 and finished in 2nd place going into the finals behind Wes. We both had over 400 points and he was close to 500 points. Mel joined us as well as Greg Hollis, and 4 others I have regrettably forgotten. I had started the event at 1-2 but then didn’t lose the rest of the day save for an extra game to eliminate a squad prior to starting the top 8. Wes chose first and picked 4 wookies and the hammerhead commander and I chose a 3 vong squad with a Jedi Hunter, the one with Twin and cunning +20 and a scrub. I beat Greg’s NR squad pretty easily in the first game as they had no chance against Vong with a Jedi and filler. Game #2 was the Final Four and my toughest game against Wes’ Rebel Wookies. He was able to charge and do a lot of damage and I lost my weak Vong quickly. In like round 3 or 4 I managed a charge up the map and based his commander Hammerhead with both Vong. Killed him in the next round and then went after Wes’ wookies. He had a lot of Gambit and needed really only to kill either of my Vong but with Crab armor and him only doing like 10 I started picking them off until I won. In the final game I played Mel and his Republic Jedi Master and Echani Handmaiden squad. Against Vong and out activated 3-2, he had no chance. I out activated and came close to basing the JWM and then after winning init charged with the cunning +20 Vong putting a lot of damage on and finishing him with the Jedi Hunter. The Handmaiden fell quickly after and I had won this great event and the complete set of Rebel Storm.

SATURDAY: 200 Point Mystery Map tourney and the first leg of the Sith Trials. I had decided that I would play only in the MM so I could then relax and make my first and only trip to the vendor hall to shop a bit. Then, I would finish up the night with the Team Rumble event. I played a really potent and fun squad I had played a bit in the weeks prior to GenCon and found it was good (even beat Bryan’s 3rd place Championship Thon squad by a point after not being able to detonate the Drones for most all the game.) I probably should have played it in the Champs as it was really pretty good. It was 12 x Geonosian Drones, Poggle, Muun Tactics Broker, New Cad Bane, New Aurra Sing, Lancer, Sidious 3 x Uggies, and like 2 or 3 Mouse Droids to travel with Cad to serve as cover and Hostage shields. 23 Activations I think with no San or no Droid to give +4 attack. The Mystery map served my squad well as it had plenty of room to hide and plenty of space to fly the Lancer. I was fortunate to set up I think every time on the right side as the left side has a cavernous room that has no cover eating up like 40% of the left side. Won a 2 point game just falling short of 200 against Alex’s Cad, Aurra, and Morrigan squad in game 1. Game 2, I don’t really recall whom I beat but won a 3 point game. Game 3, I won another 3 pointer against Daniel and was 3-0 with 8 points… a highlight for me was setting up a 90 degree inverted T drone bunch killing my own hurt Sidious but also taking out his Yoda and Foul at the same time, that was payback for him pulling my full health Yodabuck into a pit in last year’s MM tournament haha. Game 4, I was paired against Tim and his large 1 activation at a time Dodonna NR squad. He had Luke, R3PO, old Kyle, Lobot, and like 7 or 8 mouse droids and a MTB. He locked all his commanders in a small room on the bottom left of the map and started all his beats surrounding R3PO in the large room at the top. I made sure to stay hidden and we had to roll each time as we each cancelled each other’s MTB. I advanced all my pieces down the bottom of the board and was sure to remain hidden. Around round 3 or so, I made a nice run with an unassuming Uggie and got him to safety and 6 squares away from the Commanders locked room setting up a blown door and Lancer strafe the next round. However, it occurred to me at about the same time Tim noticed the Uggie later in the round, and asked if he was activated, that I could pawn him with Sidious which I did and ran him up and blew the door. Lancer run through the room and did kill the MTB (perhaps should have let him live) and most of the room. Now Tim made a great charge with his troops to get right into the mix. I set up multiple Furious Assaults with Cad and took out the R3PO which enabled me to bomb once again. Cad and Aurra finished off his guys and I won a hard fought game and the MM tourney at 4-0 with 11 points. Really should have kept going as I would have had a nice chance to win the challenge as I still finished 3rd overall in it and did not play in the last 2 legs at all (100 point Light/Dark and Tile Wars,) but wanted to get to the vendor hall. Team Rumble at night: Bryan Hole fresh off a great 3rd place Champs showing with his Thon squad with Wes and I rounding out the team. We scored a boatload in our first round matches (in round 1 alone I scored over 500 points and Wes had I think over 400 and Bryan had over 300). The problem with scoring so high (like Randy, Bryan and I did last year in round 1) is everyone then commiserates and gangs up on you to try to stop you making it not so much fun. We had a 350+ point lead going into the second and final round, yet lost after I scored 206, Wes like 170 and Bryan less than 100. We finished a disappointing 3rd, yet the blow was cushioned by the late hour, Derry and his bottles of ale, and Graham running with the Championship belt and sliding all while yelling “GOOOOAAAAL!” Anxiously awaiting Weeks’ video of this on Facebook! I was tired and wanted to get home (1 hour North) and had decided to skip the Sealed although I really wanted some of the sweet customs. Did not get home until 3:00 AM after awakening that previous morning at 5:30 AM. Gerry, still waiting on that glass of Rum!!

FINAL REFLECTIONS: Thanks to everyone that donated their time and efforts to making GenCon a blast and offering a great field of SWM events to play. Special thanks to James Wysinski for organizing and setting it all up and for being gracious as always. A blast as always and a chance to play a lot of Star Wars minis and see and hang out with a bunch of great people and friends. Also, glad my friend and protégé of sorts Greg Hollis got to go for a day of gaming on Friday, his first time at GenCon. Glad to see some new young players playing of varying level of experience and also glad that a dad and young son (maybe 10 or so) decided to break out their minis that had been put away and were seen playing each other in our area late at least two nights. Very nice of Alex to befriend him and help him out and visit with him and his dad. Additionally cool of young Alex was giving a few things to a really young boy who played in the Mini Madness event and just missed the top 8 which really crushed him. Not sure if there was a Sportsmanship award this year, but I certainly feel it could have went to Alex.Disappointing to me was that I talked with more than a few people that were somewhat discouraged by turnouts for various SWM games when we saw and talked with so many players that hung around yet did not participate. I know people have other things to do and see and other games to play, but I too felt the turnouts would/should have been better. We often ponder how to get new people to play the game and stick with it, yet we fielded a Championship that was smaller than our Kokomo Regional of two years ago. Granted the entire field is stacked, but this is disconcerting to me for sure. Regardless, on to V-Set 6 playing and V-Set 7 play testing (get with me if you want to playtest we are starting now: 7bombs@gmail.com and let me know what faction(s) you prefer and will be looking forward to next year’s Regionals and GenCon as usual, hope you can make it.

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